The Hope Fund in the Mekong Delta has built solid concrete bridges in seemingly "inaccessible" lands. On the journey to build the bridge of Hope number 98 in Vinh Tay this time was accompanied by the "red shirt army" Vietlott, with a cash contribution of 200 million VND.

On the southern bank of Hau Giang stream, Thoai Son district, seen from above, is a strip of land of two green colors: the green of vast fields, and the green interlaced with canals running in the shape of herringbone. Interspersed between these two shades of green are the rudimentary houses of families who cling to the fields for a living.

Over twenty years of being a bride in Phu Thuan, women like Mai have attached their lives to the "loose" wooden bridge at the Xang canal junction, from the time when they were embarrassed to take their hats and hold their husband's hand to their husband's house. , come later, in the third year of harvest, rice is carried across the river. Their footsteps over the years have been trampling on dozens of wooden planks, held together by hastily nailed nails and all kinds of fragile steel wires.

The wood fibers were exposed to the sun and the rains of the wet season in the West, crumbling with sharp nails. Wood surface covered with moss, fluttering wild bushes growing around. The Phu Thuan people call that rudimentary structure a bridge.

On that bridge for many years, Thoai Son granary farmers still have to carry their rice home by themselves, children grab their pants, tiptoe to school in rainy days, and sick people in the hamlet have to rely on family members to carry them to the other side. bridge, where an ambulance is waiting. The houses facing the bridge are familiar with the rumbling sounds that echo day and night of the long wooden beams on the bridge deck when people pass by.

The men in the hamlet around the Xang canal junction, after each rainy season together, they gathered together each good wooden plank in the house to patch up the bridge, hoping to get through the next rainy and windy days. Mrs. Mai confided, Western people have worked hard for many generations, used to extremes, only regretting their sweat has not helped them get rich. A few hundred million dong at a time to build a bridge is "impossible" for purely agricultural areas like Phu Thuan, and most communes in Thoai Son.

To change this, the Project "Bridge of Hope - Lifting children to school" of the Hope Foundation to remove temporary bridges, plank bridges and degraded iron bridges in the Mekong Delta has built solid concrete bridges in the Mekong Delta in areas that seem "inaccessible". On the journey to build the bridge of Hope number 98 in Vinh Tay this time was accompanied by the "red shirt army" Vietlott, with a cash contribution of 200 million VND.

Community activities for many years have become a "tradition" of Vietlott's winners, as a way of sharing luck and giving opportunities to those with more difficult lives. Once organized to give gifts to hundreds of lottery ticket sellers in the Ho Chi Minh City during Covid-19 pandemic, giving scholarships to poor orphans, contributing to road construction and school construction, but this is the first time that Vietlott's red shirt accompanies a bridge-building project " survival" with the people living in the country.

On the first day of March, the two works started together, half an hour apart by car, but shared a festive atmosphere. Many tears were shed, because of happiness, "finally this day has come". In the midst of the burning sun of the Western summer, it was the Phu Thuan men who, before waiting for the rain to stop, carried hammers and nails to repair the wooden bridge, now stripped naked and rolled up to contribute to the construction of the bridge.

Women like Mrs. Mai, who are healthy, go to the lake to help, if not, stay at home, wake up early to cook fragrant tea pots, and full meals to invite the workers. The house that anchors people will clear the large yard for the construction team to ask for materials. A few young children around the hamlet, after school, forget to fly kites, play soccer, just like to stand around, eagerly looking up again for a few days "is the bridge about to be finished?". The atmosphere was bustling from morning to night, like this for three months.

On June 21, amidst the excitement of thousands of people, Vinh Tay Bridge was inaugurated. The red tape has just been cut off by representatives of the local government, Hope Fund and Vietlott, and the applause is also resounding. The old men with white beards and white hair, that morning, put on their best blouses, tried to look with their canes, then wiped their eyes with their hands, “I'm so glad. I live to this day, just waiting for this bridge…”

Alternating between the two green colors of rice fields and canals, on Thoai Son land today, there is a glimpse of the red and white paint of the new concrete bridges, fluttering colorful silk flags. The dream of bridges, no longer has to be passed on to future generations…